Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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212. To ask the Minister for Health the number of patients aged 75 years of age or over who experienced an emergency department wait time of more than 24 hours during November 2019; the number to date in 2019; and the hospitals in which the wait occurred. [50886/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The hospital system is currently operating at close to full capacity. The number of patients attending Emergency Departments continues to increase year on year. HSE figures show that for the first ten months of 2019, the number of patients attending Emergency Departments nationally increased by 2.7% while the number of attendances of patients over the age of 75 increased by 3.3% compared to the same period in 2018. This reflects increasing demand for unscheduled care, especially by patients in the 75 years and over age group.

However, the National Service Plan 2019 includes an expected activity target that 99% of patients aged 75 and over attending at an Emergency Department are discharged or admitted within 24 hours and any breach of this target in respect of patients in this age cohort is unacceptable.

With regard to the Deputy's specific question, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly with the requested information.